I've been curious about this for a while, and it's becoming especially relevant as you guys start moving into the new era beyond FI. How do you overcome the hurdle of figuring out 'new' futuristic technologies, when what's already out there as potential source material just doesn't fill the needs you have? Aside from the simple (but time-consuming) expedient of waiting for new material, I mean. Compacting existing tech only takes you so far, after all - I don't, for example, see Reflex tech getting much smaller than what's in Daggerdisc, and covering the kind of distances that are going to be needed in the new era (what with the intergalactic nature of the conflict and all) would take several orders of magnitude more power anyway.

Are we starting to encroach on the old 'Sufficiently advanced tech vs. magic' line? (Not that the stuff already in print doesn't already do that, mind, but are we going to see the IPO busting out block transfer tech and the like?)

I realize this is a loaded question, and that answers, if any are available, may have to be left extremely vague to prevent spoilers. I'm just curious about the process itself, really. How do you develop something newer and shinier than something that is already so far beyond the curve as to be fantastic?